Need help tuning my diet. Am I eating too much?

vanhazin

Hello everyone. I need help with tuning my diet. I'm 276lb and want to get to 240. I hit the weights 2hr a day and lift fairly hard. I think. I've read I should eat 1g of protein per lb and eat that much in the weight I want to be. Is that right? As of now, MFP has me eating 2700 cal a day. My macros are. Pro- 35%-240g. Carbs-34%-228g. Fat-31%-92g. Does this seem right? I am struggling to eat this much and then eat more when I log in an exercise. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

neanderthin

Yes, that is basically the gist of it. Someone could weight 400 lbs but that doesn't mean that person should eat 400g's of protein. It refers to lean mass or possible desired weight and in that context anywhere from .7 to 1g per lb of lean mass would be more appropriate but still has wiggle room depending on other factors like age, sex, activity level etc. We all need a certain amount of subcutaneous fat for health reasons which is why I included desired weight in the mix. Again, this is just rule of thumb and adjustments can be made up or down. Do I think you need 240g's of protein, no, I think that is excessive, but that's just my opinion. cheers.

Lietchi

You lift weights 2hrs a day every day? That sounds a bit extreme. Muscle growth happens during recovery, so I hope you're not training the same muscles each day?

As for the amount of calories: how many extra calories are you getting for your weight training? MFP's estimate for strength training is reasonable, but fitness trackers often give exaggerated estimates.

vanhazin

OK. I've only been on this app for a little over a week now and hit 2400 cal 3 times. Only hit the 2700 once. I am trying to build some muscle while losing as well. I have lost almost 2lbs. So I feel that is on track. Am I hurting my muscle growth by not hitting my targeted cals? Is there a sign that I'm taking too much protein? I'm 44y old. Thanks for you feed back

vanhazin

So. I work 7 days straight and then have days off. 2-4 days depending on the week. I use those as my rest days. I pretty much target one muscle a day. Chest, arms, back shoulder, legs, repeat. So, I've tried to put my exercises in and they don't show anything on the cal part. If I put in cardio, it will show that. Cardio is not too strenuous. It usually stair stepper 15-30 min when I do cardio. Some times it 300-400 cal. But that does not include my weights because I must be an idiot and can't figure it out. Hahah

neanderthin

vanhazin wrote: »

OK. I've only been on this app for a little over a week now and hit 2400 cal 3 times. Only hit the 2700 once. I am trying to build some muscle while losing as well. I have lost almost 2lbs. So I feel that is on track. Am I hurting my muscle growth by not hitting my targeted cals? Is there a sign that I'm taking too much protein? I'm 44y old. Thanks for you feed back

I think your focus should be losing body fat. Keep in mind that muscle growth in a deficit is almost unicorn territory for the vast majority of people and that diet also needs to be optimal for that to happen and that judgement is made by our body by default, and not some arbitrary numbers game that we believe should work, does that make sense? Your probably going to maintain your lean mass better than most because of your routine and you might build new muscle but it takes a long time to actually build any kind of muscle mass, years for most people. Concentrate on reducing your body fat percentage first, then when your getting closer to your idea goal you can then determine if a recomp is in order or not.

Lietchi

vanhazin wrote: »

So. I work 7 days straight and then have days off. 2-4 days depending on the week. I use those as my rest days. I pretty much target one muscle a day. Chest, arms, back shoulder, legs, repeat. So, I've tried to put my exercises in and they don't show anything on the cal part. If I put in cardio, it will show that. Cardio is not too strenuous. It usually stair stepper 15-30 min when I do cardio. Some times it 300-400 cal. But that does not include my weights because I must be an idiot and can't figure it out. Hahah

Ah well, it's not intuitive, you actually need to enter it via Cardiovascular and then choose Strength training (weight lifting, weight training).

vanhazin

I found the strength training on it. Thanks. I appreciate it

vanhazin

I've been debating on that honestly. If I go away from trying to build more muscle and focus in my weight loss, do I need to input new stuff for my MFP? just go back to what MFP originally had my plan at?

vanhazin

So, I put the input of strength training in and said it 750 cal. Plus the 300 I get from cardio. Am I really suppose to eat almost 3700 calma day?

Lietchi

How long have you been doing this? Because all of those numbers are just estimates, the best basis is your actual weight loss rate. The faster you lose weight, the more muscle loss (or less gain) is likely.

vanhazin

Only had the app for little over a week. I started in Feb. Have lost 20lbs. I started at 296. But I'm trying to take my diet more serious.

cmriverside

Here's my suggestion.
1. I find it hard to believe you are focusing on one muscle group and lifting for two hours each time.
2. I doubt very much that you need 35% protein - ever - unless you are training for some specific thing and a Professional Athletic Coach has you set to that. Set your Goals to the default to start. You can over-think this later. 50%C 30%F and 20%P is fine. If you really want more protein, then set it to 45/30/25. 240g of protein is excessive, regardless.
3. I wouldn't even log "lifting" calories. I doubt very much that you burn more than a couple hundred calories on a lifting session - even if you actually do keep it going for a full two hours.
4. I think you could eat a flat 2700 every day, regardless of your exercise. OR, you could try eating 2700 and your cardio (200-300 more per hour of cardio, not more than that.) Pick something and stick to it so you'll have data. NO, I don't think you need 3700 unless you have a very active, physically demanding job and home life.

Log your food for 4-6 weeks and then adjust once you have a good trending data set. It's an experiment and only you can run it on yourself. We can't tell you anything more than, set goals, log food, adjust.

vanhazin

I will set my stuff back to default and focus on just that. Thank you.
Please don't assume what I do. I didn't make this post, just to lie on it. I'm looking for guidance. Not what you think u know I do.

sollyn23l2

vanhazin wrote: »

I will set my stuff back to default and focus on just that. Thank you.
Please don't assume what I do. I didn't make this post, just to lie on it. I'm looking for guidance. Not what you think u know I do.

I don't think anyone's trying to accuse you of lying... it's just that there are some common errors people will make in tracking, and we like to check for that, because those are the issues we can help solve. Outside of that, it gets much more difficult to solve.

vanhazin

Fair enough. I'm not trying to be difficult. That why I got this app. I've been all over the place on diets. I'm meal prepping and trying to dial it in and this app seems to help with it. The opinions do matter and i will follow them. Thanks

Retroguy2000

There's a lot to unpack here.

Your target is 240 pounds. Would that be at a reasonable 15% or around there body fat level? Or is 240 an interim goal? Are you a new lifter?

One muscle group a day is fine, but if that's taking you two hours there's something very wrong going on. As Dr, Mike of Renaissance Periodization says, more than 12 sets for a single muscle group in a session becomes junk volume, and more than 3 exercises for a muscle group is likely overlap and overkill. That many sets should not take you two hours. So either you're wasting a lot of time, and that 350 calories per hour estimate is therefore way too high, or you're doing a lot of junk volume and in the process hampering your recovery.

Re protein, 1g per pound is an old bodybuilder myth and it applies to lean people anyway. Your body fat doesn't need 1g per pound. If you're overweight, 0.7g per pound should be plenty. That's about 195g. Round up to 200g if you want. Could you aim a bit higher with no downsides? Sure. Will it do anything for you? Probably not.

You're hoping to build muscle while losing. I get that, but with that much weight to lose, it shouldn't be your priority right now. If you're new to lifting, and if you're losing at a slow enough pace, yes you can build some muscle. If you're not new to lifting, or you're losing at a faster pace, your realistic goal should be holding on to what you have. Frequent workouts will help with that goal, i.e. doing something for every muscle group every few days, rather than maybe being a week apart. This should be easier if you cut out the junk volume.

You're doing 3x as much upper body as lower body, tsk tsk.

Do your cardio after the weights, or in a separate session. A 10-min cardio warmup before the weights is good, but don't be exhausting yourself on cardio before starting the weights.

I agree with cmriverside. Log your workouts. I say go as high as 3000 for now on your work and working out days, and 2700 on the rest days. With about 200g protein. Do that for a month, see your weight progress, that gives you a good estimate of your actual TDEE and current calorie deficit. Tune from there.

vanhazin

If I can stay at 240 and look lean, I prefer that. But if I need to drop to 220, I will.
As for junk volume, I think you guys are right. I'm doing alot of it I think. I will cut back on some exercises for sure. I don't feel like I'm wasting time. I take anywhere from 1min30sec- 3min rest between sets. Sometime a touch longer when going to a new exercise. I have lifted before. On and off since high school. This really the first time I'm trying to count macros and focus on my diet more than the lifting. The workouts I do, I guess are more geared to bodybuilding. I'm focusing on form more and staying away from super heavy lifting. Most my sets are 8-12. Typically 5 lifts per exercise with some failure in there depending on how I feel after the 5 sets. My cardio is always after. I definitely don't hit it as much as I should. I'm trying to hold myself accountable on that. Haha
I'm definitely going to reset my goals. Go back to default and see where that had me. I believe it was close to what u guys are saying.
I will log everything and come back and give updates.
I want to thank everyone who has give me any advice. I will do it. Thanks again. It's really appreciated

kshama2001

Here's a reputable protein calculator:

https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/

I shoot for 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I achieve that, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein grams recommendation from Examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.

Now, I'm female and probably considerably shorter than you, given your goal of 240 pounds. If that is your final goal, I am curious about how tall you are.